


Lucky

by Onlymostydead



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Dysphoria, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Violence, Sexual Harrassment, Trans Female Character, Transphobia, alcohol mention, bad fathers, trans girl Link
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-17 07:24:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17555918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlymostydead/pseuds/Onlymostydead
Summary: Link has known who she is for along time, but no one else can see it... No one but her two friends: Fenna, who she's known since childhood; and Princess Zelda.





	Lucky

**Author's Note:**

> This was loosely based on a request by FeralG4! Fenna is their OC, I just named him.

Link had known who she was for a long time... Even if she hadn't realized it until these past few years. Her father was the captain of the Royal Guard, and she was trained to follow in his footsteps. From the time she could hold a sword, he was teaching her, making her into the knight that he wanted. That the kingdom wanted.  
Link had known who she was for a long time, and it wasn't her father's child. It had been a long time ago, sure, but...

"Hey, what's going on with you?" Fenna fell into stride next to Link, cutting his steps short so that he wouldn't pass her.

It was so annoying; ever since he had hit that massive growth spurt... But, of course, there was nothing she could do. Besides, feeling short was almost nice, sometimes.

"Just having an off day." She signed, shrugging just a little bit. "It'll be fine. You?"

Fenna frowned, raising a thick eyebrow. "Are they bothering you again?"

"No." Link shook her head. "Besides, I'm used to it. It doesn't matter."

"It does matter." He insisted, letting out a defeated sigh; he had tried this before. "You deserve better than to have those-" He kicked a rock along the path. "-Assholes pushing you around."

She just shrugged. "If I wanted to, I would deal with them."

"...Is it your dad again?"

"No." Link lied, turning her face away from him.

It wasn't hard, considering that she was a lot shorter than him, and that her bangs had gotten long enough to effectively cover her eyes. Having suck inconvenient hair wasn't good, she knew that. Being a knight of Hyrule meant always being alert and prepared, but still she wasn't ready to sacrifice her one thing...  
Link had been proud of her hair for a long time, before she quite understood what that meant. At parties she was dragged along to with her parents she always ended up in the center of a circle of women. Sometimes her mother was one of them, usually she wasn't. More often than not, she was more interested in the alcohol than the conversation. But these ladies? All their attention was on Link.

"How pretty your hair is!" One of them had cooed, patting her on the head. "So silky and soft..."

Likelihood was that most of them were intoxicated to some degree, but Link hadn't understood that then. He just sat quietly and enjoyed the attention. The ladies were nice, even if their words slurred a little bit.

"Curls like these are just a waste on a boy." Another clucked, shaking her head in distain. "He won't even take care of them well."

Link shook her head. "No, I take care of my hair! I wash it, every other day, and, and..."

The ladies laughed, one of them patting her on the head and planting a doting kiss on her forehead. She wasn't quite sure why they found it so funny, but they did. It was all strange to her though: the parties and the Royal obligations, so it never seemed too out of the ordinary.

What was out of the ordinary, however, was the sticky feeling that the whole encounter left on her.

Back then, her hair had only just been long enough to curl around her ears. Now it hung down to her shoulders, pulled back in a practical ponytail. Less practical, however, were the two 'sideburn' pieces she left out on either side. And the bangs.  
The truth was, though... Those were just necessary. Link normally kept her bangs short enough to be out of her eyes, but long enough that the hair disguised her brow ridge. The longer side pieces hung down and covered her jawline, softening her face overall. Looking at her face without it gave her that same icky feeling, the grit on her teeth of looking like a boy.

She had grown up a boy. She knew what it was like to be mistaken every time, to have people never quite understand, to be rejected because of femininity.

Rejected. It all came back to-

"Whoa, there." Fenna's voice startled Link back to reality. "You almost just walked into that ditch. You're sure there's nothing wrong?"

"I'm fine." She signed, gritting her teeth. "I just need to get back to the barracks and clean up."

"Don't we all?" He cracked a smile, but it had no real effect. "That bad, huh?"

Link was too used to Fenna to buy the nonchalance around this whole thing. They had been friends for years...   
In fact, Fenna seemed to be the only friend Link had after she started telling people who she really was. That she was a girl. He hadn't even batted an eye, simply stating that was why she always played the Princess in their games, and that he was glad he never had to play that role.

If there was one way to describe him, it was loyal to a fault. "I'm serious, Fenna. I'm okay."

"Alright," He didn't sound convinced, but wary was about as close as he'd come to that. "I'll stand guard while you clean up."

"Thank you."

"It's the least I can do, you know that."

Link did know that. Growing up, it was always determined Fenna owed her for something or other. It was a running joke of theirs that he was forever in her debt. Of course, there was no real number on the debt, so Fenna just kept acting. It was nice, on occasion. Like when it came to bathing.

As soon as Link told her father that she was a girl, the secret was out... And so was he. Kicked out of his home, off to live in the barracks with the other soldiers. That, by itself, wouldn't have too bad. But of course, word had to travel. By the second day, everybody knew, and nowhere was safe.   
Least of all the showers. It didn't help that Link was already small, taking her diminutive size from both parents. Sure, on the training field she was as lethal as they came, but outside of a controlled area? She didn't want to hurt any of her fellow Knights; it would just be foolish. She'd get in trouble for sure.

That was the problem. Not wanting to hurt anyone.

It felt weak and shameful to accept help, but sometimes it was nice. Link hadn't even really realized Fenna was a knight too; she was trapped in her own vicious cycle of training and preparing and acting like a boy for her parents.  
When she was first kicked out, Fenna had recognized her. He remembered the new name she had told him, Link, and pretended that had been her name the whole time. It never made a difference to him... Except when it made a difference to the others. Then he got angry, which... Wasn't the best.

The best was when he just watched the door, making sure she stayed safe. He said he didn't mind, always just singing or rhyming a little tune while she scrubbed off. His reputation was enough to steer off enough of the other knights, thankfully.

Tall, strong, and good looking all have very high merits among the knights of Hyrule, and Fenna ticks off all of those boxes. His silky black hair is always swept back from his face in a sleek braid or ponytail, though little pieces still fall out. His brows are thick over his brown eyes, darker in color than a cup of Gerudo coffee. If there was a benefit to his nose, it was the straightness of it. That seemed random, until someone considered how many broken noses the troops dealt with. Instinctively, Link reached up and touched his own crooked one. Full lips and a soft chin gave him a boyish kind of appeal, often drawing people more to the word cute, but still attractive.  
More than that though, was the violence. Fenna could be sickening; Link hated watching when he got too angry about something. The last time is happened was in the showers, and, well...

The normal group of troublemakers were there to pick on her, per the norm. It was always the same types of characters: nobility's children, officers kids, all eager for attention with bloodlust to prove for it.

Paulia was a tall half Sheikah girl with cruel blue eyes. She never quite started physical altercations, but she was often a cause of them. Goading and teasing, she got others all riled up.  
Her mother was a noblewoman, a member of the King's court.

Next to her was Oman, who always just sneered. He was short and stocky, with light brown skin and a permanent scowl.

Bea was mean, always pushing and shoving. After that incident, she lost half her head of stringy blonde hair. She'd never forgive Link for that.

There were others too; there were always others. Heron and Fevi and Lorn, always with Terron following behind. And of course, they were all in the showers.

"Hey, look. There's our little try-hard." Bea sneered. "Not looking too good, huh?"

"No, he isn't." Tarron grinned with his wolfish teeth and gleaming eyes. "You know, if I were to try to be a girl to get my daddy's attention, I'd at least try to be a pretty one."

"Is it just because you're unimpressive... Down there?" Fevi asked, feigning wide eyed innocence. "You know, you might just be better off if you accepted who you are."

Link frowned, and tried to open his mouth, but the words wouldn't come out. They hadn't in a long time, but he had hoped... Maybe, he had hoped that telling people would relieve part of the burden. I'm truth, it had only made matters worse. There was no way he could speak, and they didn't understand sign.

"What happened to your face, baby boy?" Bea taunted, circling around a little bit. "Did daddy hit you?"

She turned away, hand immediately coming up to cover her bruised eye. Her father had reacted first with his voice, second with his fist. Everything else they said was surface level, but that hit her hard.

"You can't cover up all your shame, you know." Paulia's silver voice chided. "There's just too much of it for that."

"You could just drop the act now." Fevi suggested. "Maybe he'd even love you still."

Maybe. The maybe hurt his head, hurt his heart, hurt the top of his throat. He couldn't speak; there was just no way.

"You can want to suck guys off and still not be a chick, you know." Oman stated. "You can start with mine. I'm sure the guys wouldn't mind passing around your mouth too much."

There were a few mixed tones of agreement, circling around Link, surrounding him. All she had to do was shower and leave, she reminded herself. That was it. Still, it was proving impossible to move.

"You don't look too bad if I cross my eyes a little..." One guy murmured.

"At least its hair is pretty."

"This whole 'girl' thing means that its perverted, right? How much fun..."

"No amount of pretty hair will make up for-"

That's when Fenna stepped in. Link didn't need him to. In fact, they would never stop talking about him like that. He only dealt with the situation once, but the effect...

"What are you doing?" He demanded, stepping forward and parting the group. "Why are you surrounding Link?"

Fevi's eyes widened impossibly more. "Actually, that's-"

"Shut your nasty little mouth, Fevi." 

Fevi, of course, had to be the precious baby sister of the regiment. She was small, with huge green eyes and a wiry auburn braid straight down her back. Everyone broke into chaos when Fenna told her to shut up, mostly because they now had an excuse to.  
And when Bea shoved Fenna, it gave him an excuse to grab her hair and pull, yanking out a fair chunk. Only a few more blows were delivered after that, mostly by Fenna.

Link felt useless watching. Stupid. Fake. A waste of time. It as just like his father said; he would never amount to anything as long as he kept this fantasy. He couldn't even protect himself.

Even though, he wasn't in real danger. 

"You shouldn't have gone so hard on them." Link signed after everyone else had filtered out of the room. "That wasn't necessary."

"But the things they were saying-"

"I can handle it." She swallowed. "Okay? It's not-"

"It is a big deal!" He argued, emphasizing the point with his hands. "You're my friend, and they-"

"Fenna." Link signed his name slowly, trying to calm him down. "Let me deal with them. It's not your job."

Taking in a deep breath, he relaxed his shoulders as he let it out. "Then what can I do?"

She frowned, then glanced over at the entrance to the barracks. "Guard the door?"

Fenna nodded. "That sounds good."

"Maybe I owe you this time?" Link shrugged, trying to smile.

He grinned, blood still dripping from his nose. "Nah. I'm still in debt for life."

So that's what started this: Link showering quickly to avoid anyone else walking in on her, with Fenna watching the door. Here was the only place she could let her guard down these days, really, because directly after this she would have to go guard the princess.  
The princess. Just thinking of her brought images of flowing golden hair and a curvy figure, things Link was painfully aware she was lacking. While the showers were one of the few places she could relax, it was hard to when she was looking at herself. How straight down her body was, how flat her chest... The list of things she hated went on and on, too long to think through in an organized list.

Sighing, Link finished up quickly. After all, she didn't want to keep the princess waiting.

***

Link hacked into the practice dummy with her sword, hair falling down into her face. It was long past dark, the training grounds only lit by torches now, but there was no way she could fall asleep. Not after the day she had.

Training was fine. It was always bad, but it was fine. She could deal with the things the other troops said. But the princess? Princess Zelda, who she envied so much, didn't seem to know how to talk about her. She avoided pronouns and shifted in her seat anytime she noticed that Link was around.  
So she tried to make herself invisible, for however long she could. It was frustrating, it was all just so-

Her sword took the training dummy's bucket head clean off, making a hollow noise as it hit the packed dirt.

Link sighed, pulling off her helmet. It was just so... She knew who she was, but no one else could see it. They could see she was short, that she had pretty hair, but never who she really was. The only person who could, her only friend, was Fenna, and the time she got with him was always so limited...

Slapping the dummy back together as well as she could, tying the end of the stick tightly back to the main structure, Link got back to training. Every maneuver she could think of, any move, any strike, and way that an enemy might try to attack her... Anything at all, if she knew it, she practiced it. After sword she switched to claymore, then spear, then bow. It was late now, the moon shining high overhead, but the adrenaline was still strong as it coursed through Link's veins. She was so, completely done with everyone and everything. Part of her just wanted to turn her back on the world.

But if she did that, she couldn't prove her father wrong. She would amount to something; she could be great. She could be-

"Link?" The voice was soft and feminine, startling Link out of her angered frenzy.

Immediately, she came to attention; if that wasn't the princesses voice...  
Sure enough, Princess Zelda herself stood in the training area, the lantern in her hand making her hair look like liquid gold. The simple white dress she wore made her look more like a ghost than a girl. Her brows were drawn upward, mouth slightly punched. Something about her stance looked incredibly uncomfortable.  
Link was very glad she hadn't put an arrow through her. First reactions are a scary thing.  
"Yes, your highness?"  
She scowled. "You aren't guarding me right now, you don't have to refer to me like that."  
Link nodded. "Yes... Princess Zelda?"

"Zelda." She corrected, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just Zelda."  
She nodded again.

"I came down to ask you a couple of questions." 

Link's heart was pounding out of her chest. What kind of questions? What did she want to know? Was she about to get kicked it of the army? Could she no longer be a guard because of this whole situation? Biting her lip, she nodded again, trying not to convey how scared she really was.  
"Your name is Link, correct?" Zelda asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "The name you prefer, anyway."  
She nodded.

"And you're a girl?"

This was it: the question. "Yes."

Squeezing her eyes shut, she prepared herself for the storm.  
But Zelda only nodded. "I though so, but the Captain seemed to think differently. I'll have to inform him-"

"Don't." Link signed... Then realized she just interrupted the princess.

"What?"

She swallowed. "The Captain is my father... He kicked me out for being, well, a girl."  
Immediately, Zelda's demeanor changed. No longer was she stiff and uncomfortable; her shoulders relaxed. She let out a little tiny sigh, stepping forward a little bit.

Link was startled by the thought, but suddenly she looked less like a ghost, more like the goddess.

"While I obviously do not fully understand your situation," She started. "I understand having... A demanding and unreasonable father. I regret to inform you, however, that he is trying to get you removed from the guard."  
Link squeezed her eyes shut and nodded. She expected as much already, but this just confirmed it. Tears threatened to well up, but she managed to somehow keep them down.

"However..." Zelda continued, smirking just a little bit. "Things can be arranged to avoid that, I think... Or perhaps just other adjustments."

After interrupting her earlier, Link decided not to speak. She simply nodded.

"I will do what I can. Thank you for your time, Link." She gave a small curtsy. "And get some rest."

With that she walked away, taking the light of her lantern with her, leaving Link back in the dimness of the torches.  
***

Within the week, Link was no longer a part of the Royal Guard. She was a knight still, which was something, but it was a huge blow nonetheless. For a couple of days the princess's words had given her hope, but now?  
"Keep your chin up." Fenna smiled, trying his best to comfort her. "It's not your fault the kingdom is messed up."

Link shook her head. "Yeah, but I could have avoided this if..."

"If what? If you didn't tell anyone?"

She nodded.

"That's ridiculous." He huffed, crossing his arms, "You look better now. Happier. Even though everyone is awful... You were miserable before. I know we never talked, but you looked terrible."  
Link tried, and failed, to give him a little smile.  
"Things will get better, I'm sure."

And, sure enough, they did. Link went on with her day as always; training later than everyone else, Fenna watching the door as she showered, but after that was a strange hole. She was free to do basically whatever, until they decided on where to post her as an ordinary guard. The free day was strange, that was for certain.  
So she wandered around, just waiting for something that wouldn't come. At some point, she made it to the royal gardens. Making up fantasy situations in her head was childish, but...

"Link? There you are." Zelda's voice came from behind her. "I've been looking for you."

Link frowned, but turned to face her anyway. What could she possibly want? She was off the guard, so how could-

"I'm sorry about the guard situation." She started. "But I do have some good news, if you'll follow me."

What else could she do? Link nodded, and they set off.  
"I've been tasked with having an appointed knight, and either I choose one, or one will be chosen for me." Zelda explained as they walked, her skirts rustling with her every move. "Tomorrow, I am going to tell my father that you are my choice."

Link's eyebrows shot up. Her? Why did the princess want-

"You are the most capable individual fighter, having been a child prodigy, and yet despite that, you still fight well as a team. You're quiet, so not too annoying, and well..." She trailed off, then shrugged. "You're my age. I don't think I would be comfortable with someone much older following me around all the time."

"That makes sense."

"Thank you." Zelda smiled. "I decided to have a day in between for you, because, well... We are about the same size, and I thought you might appreciate this. If you don't want to, you don't have to, of course..."

What was she talking about? Link's heart was pounding. What was this?  
She was leading her further into the castle now, until she reached a hall that Link had gone into on very few occasions. This was the wing where the princess's room was, which worried her just a little... What was going on?  
Zelda pushed open the door to her room, and gestured for Link to follow her in afterward.

Laid out on the neatly made bed were multiple garments, of many different types. Link blushed when he noticed some undergarments, wondering if this was what the princess intended to happen, or if her room was just a little messy.  
Still, the items were laid out very neatly...

"I couldn't negotiate the design of the Champion's Tunic, but I do have it here for you to try on." Zelda explained, touching a blue tunic laid out on the bed. "Since we already had your measurements used to fit your armor, I may have, well... As I said, if you don't want to try them on, you don't have to, but these have been designed specifically to make the wearer appear to have breasts."

They both blushed.

"They are small, because I thought I very big change may not be appreciated, but..."

Link nodded. "Small would be better for movement, too."  
"Most certainly." Zelda agreed. "I also have a few gowns here, because as the princess's appointed knight, there is a high likelihood of you having to attend a fancy party at some point, and a couple dresses that are more everyday types."

It was all so overwhelming. The things laid out on the bed were for her. All of it, from the sky blue tunic to the deep purple and burgundy ball gown. There were a couple of simpler dresses too, everything Link had ever dreamed of.  
Tears began to well up in her eyes, blurring her vision.  
Zelda's eyes went wide. "Is something wrong?"

Link smiled, shaking her head. "No. Nothing is... Thank you. Thank you so much."

She smiled. "Would you like to-"

Link nodded so enthusiastically that Zelda laughed. "Alright then, let's get started."

***

Fenna whistled. "Wow, that's a new look."  
Link blushed, hiding her hands in her skirt. She had left the room in one of the plainer dresses: a simple blue thing with a cinched waist and a stitched detail around the neckline. It was far prettier than anything she had ever owned... Until now. Even the undergarments made her feel so special, like she was flying.

"The princess has taken a liking to me."

Fenna laughed. "That's great! You look amazing."

"Thank you."

"But what about being a knight?" He asked. "Are you still...?"

Link nodded. "She's working on having me as her appointed knight."

He whistled again. "You, Link, must be lucky."

"I don't know about that..."

"You are." Fenna grinned. "Come on, I'm off duty, let's head down to the gardens."

And while it seemed like the whole world was out to get her, at least Link had her two friends. Maybe she really was lucky after all.

So she followed.

**Author's Note:**

> Oneshot requests are open! Though, OC's are a little difficult.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr at Supertinydom/Supertinywords
> 
> Comments are love <3


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